Hi!
I am brand new to your website and heard about it while I was at the T/A nationals this weekend. I have an unusual question that I am hoping you may be able to help me with. I have a 1977 Goldenrod Yellow T/A. While taking her apart to get her ready for restoration I kept finding Solar Gold paint in numerous places such as around the windshield and rear glass under the molding, on all four fender flares under the beading, along the bottom of both rockers, on the package tray (which still has the red spray adhesive from the factory that overlaps the gold paint), and pretty much every where else that I sanded off the yellow including the bumper covers. I removed the panel between the trunk and rear window and found the most beautiful Solar Gold paint there as well.
Well at first I thought I may have a stolen 1978 T/A that the VIN's had been switched so I took the front dog hose off to check under the A/C box and she did have the correct VIN. The data plate codes state that she should be Goldenrod Yellow, so to be sure that the data plate had not been switched I sent off for her PHS paperwork. It came back Goldenrod Yellow. So now I am really confused. I know she had to have been painted gold and assembled as a complete car at the factory because of the adhesive over spray on the package tray and the fact that as I sand thru the gold paint I only find that factory red primer under it. However before she left the factory she was painted yellow. Ok, I know that the Solar gold was not available until 78'. She is a late production car as her VIN shows she was one of the last few thousand built, and she shipped on 7/25/1977. She was built at the Norwood plant and I have been told that some crazy stuff sometimes happened in there. I spoke with numerous people at the Nationals and heard some interesting ideas such as she may of been a test car or even an auto show car, but it seems to me that GM would of kept or destroyed those. Any ideas or suggestions?